When Southerland bailed out of his riddled, smoking Wildcat, the Japanese ace felt a rare emotiongratitude that a skillful enemy had survived. Led by James. US Marines flying Grumman F4F Wildcats from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal were using a new aerial combat tactic, the "Thach Weave", which was developed in 1941 by the US Navy aviators John Thach and Edward O'Hare. In his first combat against Americans, he claimed a Curtiss P-40 shot down and two B-17 strafed on the ground. The sturdy dive bombers with their rear-mounted twin 7.62mm (0.3in) machine guns proved tough adversaries, and a blast fired by one or more of the SBDs' rear gunners, possibly including Shaw's gunner, AO2/c Harold L. Jones, shattered and blew away the canopy of Sakai's Zero.[11]. P-40s we had seen jumped us. single attack from 15 Hellcats for over 20 minutes, returning to Their ancestors were themselves samurai and had taken part in the Japanese invasions of Korea (15921598) but were later forced to take up a livelihood of farming after haihan-chiken in 1871. Shattered glass from the canopy temporarily blinded him in his right eye and reduced vision in his left eye severely. Several years ago, a former Dutch military nurse contacted the Japanese He came from a family descended from a long line of Samurai, Japan's and the Aleutians, and we wondered if the Americans would be expecting In early 1937, he applied for and was accepted into the navy pilot training program. As a militarist he was barred from government employment, and in any case his partial blindness would have prevented a return to military service. Sabur Sakai was born on 25 August 1916 in Saga Prefecture, Japan. Sakai was the Imperial Navy's fourth-ranking ace and Japan's second leading fighter pilot to survive the war, surpassed only by Tetsuz Iwamoto. Sabur Sakai was born on 25 August 1916 in Saga Prefecture, Japan. While the success ratio was small (35 percent in Sakais class), the resultant airmen were at least as good as any in the United States or Europe. Saburo Sakai was born August 16th 1916 in the farming village of Nishiyoka in the Saga prefecture on Kyushu island, Japan. officer 3rd class. Well, anyway, I didn't were some who were sadistic, there was a method in all of this madness. List of battleships of the United States Navy, A6M2b Zero Model 21 - Sabur Sakai, V-107, Tainan Kokutai, "V-173", a Mitsubishi Zero A6M2, flown by Sakai during summer of 1942, "Dogfight with James Southerland flying F4F Wildcat", Original flight helmet Sakai wore on his fateful mission when he was wounded, "REL/08378 - Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 Zero Fighter Aircraft: Japanese Navy Air Force", http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/REL/08378?image2.+Retrieved, http://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/veterans/jones/sakai-jones.html, The Last Samurai - A Detailed Look at Saburo Sakai, "Saburo Sakai passed away September 22, 2000", WarbirdForum: An afternoon with Saburo Sakai, Interview with Sakai during the production of, "A new-found friend, the man who killed my father", Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Japanese military personnel of World War II. [33], Claims have been made that his autobiography Samurai! Two Zeros were shot down in the battle, and the B-32 was seriously damaged. When he attacked - followed by three other Zero fighters, he discovered that the airplanes were TBF Avengers because he clearly distinguished the top turret and the ventral machine gun. contained significant errors, some apparently originated by coauthor Caidin. [clarification needed][27]. base untouched. beats on him. This [18] According to Sakai, that was his 60th victory. He graduated first in his class at Tsuchiura in 1937 and earned a silver watch, which was presented to him by Emperor Hirohito. Trading places with an Army Air Forces colonel at the last minute, Johnson missed the Lae combat when his B-26 turned back due to a generator failure. Sakai never said how many victories he had. distance, which he presumed to be F4Fs as well Sakai graduated as a carrier pilot, although he was never actually assigned to aircraft carrier duty. the quality to drop steeply as the war went on. To conserve fuel we cruised at only 115 knots at 12,000 feet. But the price was brutally steep by Western standards, as attrition had a literal meaning in prewar training. We stayed with our planes waiting, and saburo sakai daughter. Japan Center for Asian Historical Record, Tainan Air Group action report Reference code C08051602100. William A. McCormick saw four Hellcats on the Zero's tail but decided not to get involved. The book was not published in Japan and differs from his biographies there.[34]. In His squadron included fellow aces Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio ta. We lowered propeller revolutions to only 1,700 to 1,850 rpm, and throttled the air control valve to its leanest mixture. as I am and they sent a note to his uncle who quickly sent him home Sakai sustained grievous injuries from the return fire; he was struck in the head by a 7.62mm (0.3in) bullet, blinding him in the right eye and paralyzing the left side of his body. He was 84. He decided to ignore his orders and flew ahead of the pilot, signaling him to go ahead. for a long mission to Guadalcanal. All-or-nothing wrestling matches, acrobatics without a net and prolonged swimming tests were just part of the regimen. Despite the odds and his visual handicap, Sakai timed his breaks to perfection, rolling and skidding to avoid pass after gunnery pass. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Who was Saburo Sakai? visit me to find out if it was true. speed and altitude were incredible, and their defensive fire was very My death would take several of the enemy with me. saburo sakai daughter. With limited resources, Sakai was adopted by his maternal uncle, who financed his education in a Tokyo high school. For four hours and 45 minutes Sakai navigated homeward, lapsing in and out of consciousness. saburo sakai daughter. I was one of Speaking through an interpreter, he sketched a flight deck with notations of 17 meters (about 56 feet) wide with six arresting wires. Sakai had sent his daughter to college in the United States "to learn English and democracy." There she married an American, and gave Saburo two American-born grandchildren. how select the program was. the area. he asked in an interview reported August 10, 2000, by The Associated Press. where we had a base at Kaohsiung. the base, so we attacked and allowed the others to continue on. When he recovered three months later in April, Petty Officer First Class Sakai joined a squadron (chutai) of the Tainan Kktai under Sub-Lieutenant Junichi Sasai at Lae, New Guinea. plane went - back to Holland. includes fictional stories, and that the number of kills specified in that work were increased to promote sales of the book by Martin Caidin. ", The Last Samurai - A Detailed Look at Saburo Sakai, Saburo Sakai passed away September 22, 2000, Sakai's Saburo Sakai Is Dead at 84; War Pilot Embraced Foes, WarbirdForum: An afternoon with Saburo Sakai, Interview with Sakai during the production of, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sabur_Sakai&oldid=1142239575. After completing his training the following year, Sakai was graduated as a Sailor Third Class (Ordinary Seaman) (). A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now. In a seven-year combat carrier, he credited with at least 28 aerials victories and shooting down or severly damaging well over 60 Allied aircraft, despite later in the war flying a plane that was . Saburo Sakai is probably Japan's best-known pilot of World War II, with the possible exception of Captain Mitsuo Fuchida of Pearl Harbor infamy. The Zero rolled inverted and descended towards the sea. He The pilot fukuto, Some content on this site is probably the property of acesofww2.com unless otherwise noted. After landing, he insisted on making his mission report to his superior officer and then collapsed. However, by 1941 he was well established as a petty officer, flying A6M2 Zeros with the Tainan Kokutai, still based on Formosa. The screenplay is based on Sakai's book Samurai!. In August 1944, Sakai was commissioned an ensign (). Our orders A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now. adopt him and provide for a better education. The book states that on the night of August 14-15, 1945, the evening before Tokyos surrender, Sakai and an Ensign Jiro Kawachi intercepted a B-29 and shot it down. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. The squadron commander was furious and reprimanded the three pilots for their stupidity, but the Tainan Kokutai's three leading aces felt Nishizawa's aerial choreography of the "Danse Macabre" had been worth it. Again demonstrating the Zeros exceptional reach, Sakai flew nearly 650 miles southeast to engage American carrier pilots for the first time. sons, had 3 sisters. but also to the entire village. [3][unreliable source?]. . In remaining airborne for 10 hours or more he explained, I personally established the record low consumption of less than 17 gallons per hour; on average our pilots reduced their consumption from 35 gallons per hour to only 18. Finally at 1000 we were ordered to take off. Commander Tadashi Nakajima encountered what was to become a famous double-team maneuver on the part of the enemy. With his wingmen and fellow aces, he went from success to success, once even looping in formation over an Allied airfield. He spotted a blonde woman and a young child through the window, along with other passengers. One of Sakai's classmates was Jz Mori, who graduated as a carrier pilot and served on the Japanese aircraft carrier Sry by flying Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers early in the war.[7]. I was over Java and had just shot down on the ground. Crossley laughed, Saburo-san says, Mustang is almost as good as Hellcat!. This brought I remember that 1,500 men had applied var linktext = "contact"; In a seven-year combat career, Sakai survived horrible injuries and impossible odds, and almost got a chance to kill Lyndon Baines Johnson. Taught to live by the code of Bushido (Hagakure I saw that it was a civilian aircraft - a DC-4. based on his experience. long and hard and in 1935 he passed the Naval Gunnery School entrance When the war with the United States began, Sakai participated in the attack on the Philippines as a member of the Tainan Air Group. However, the politically attuned General Douglas MacArthur awarded the congressman a Silver Star for coolness under fire and returning with valuable information. According to Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer Robert Caro, LBJ had the medal presented repeatedly on the campaign trail, regaling voters with eyewitness accounts of 14 Zeros shot down over Lae. He also saw a blonde woman with a small daughter, who reminded him of his old high school teacher by the name of Mrs. Martin, who was . Sakai, Saburo, Martin Caidin and Fred Saito. began hanging around with kids his uncle did not approve of and picking However, he considered the arrangement worthwhile owing to the many friendships and contacts he made in America. Author Barrett Tillman has more than 40 books and 750 articles to his credit. [22], Likewise, although Japan had been defeated in the Second World War with great loss of life, Sakai serenely accepted that outcome: "Had I been ordered to bomb Seattle or Los Angeles in order to end the war, I wouldn't have hesitated. Sakai described the reaction to the Thach Weave when they encountered Guadalcanal Wildcats using it:[14]. During various examinations, Sakai asked the Doctor "May I sleep On June 24 1944, he approached 15 planes that he thought After an extended battle in which both pilots gained and lost the upper hand, Sakai shot down Southerland's Wildcat and struck it below the left wing root with his 20mm cannon. ", Just months before he died, Sakai officially admitted to reporters that he still prayed for the souls of the airmen (Chinese, American, Australian and Dutch alike) he had killed in action. drag a man from his bunk in the middle of the night and throw the and we had twenty-seven fighters on this sweep, and this was when He came from a family descended from a long line of Samurai, Japan's ancient warrior class. Sakai was evacuated to Japan on 12 August, where he endured a long surgery without anesthesia. While touring the U.S., Sakai was surprised to learn that his hosts believed he was credited with 64 victories. That it contained numerous errors has not distracted from its appeal. Additional reading: Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, by Mark Pattie; and Zero!, by Jiro Horikoshi and Masatake Okumiya. [16], Sakai was amazed at the Wildcat's ruggedness:[17]. although there were five American fighters below us who did not attack, Unable to see out of his left eye because of the glass and the blood from his serious head wound, Sakai's vision started to clear somewhat as tears cleared the blood from his eyes, and he pulled his plane out of the dive. My newspaper researched the background of the woman and discovered the whole thing was a fraud. He passed the entrance exam for flight school on the third try. fleeing, so I signaled to the pilot to follow me.